Not Quite a Nurse

Don and Madeline

Love affair of thy soul

"Don Darling, what is this? I know it is important to you but why do you wear it?' Holding the worn by time wristwatch dangling out slightly above her face, Madeline studies it carefully. Contrary to what her name would have you believe, Madeline is very British and still carries her accent strongly.

Sitting quietly in his spot beside her on the couch, Don just blinks his bright blue smiling eyes behind his glasses. Don, at ninety-three, hasn't spoken a word in nearly seven years since his stroke. He makes muffled noises, and sometimes you can hear him chuckle but no whole words spoken since. Unfortunately, I have no idea if in his head he still speaks with his accent.

Madeline knew why this was that he doesn't speak and what a watch was up until she developed Alzheimer's a few years back. Sharp as a whip this lady, and still is in many ways. She cares for her husband in tender loving ways that speak volumes to how their seventy-two year old relationship has been and the gleam in Dons eyes towards her in return, speaks volumes right back.

I have a secrete about these two! I hope you don't mind if I share. I'm pretty sure they won't, so here it goes. Since I have started working with Madeline and Don in their home, almost a year back, I have been having a secrete love affair of the soul. My soul has been completely enraptured with the love these two share. I have fallen in love with them more deeply every day, since the first morning I let myself in to wake them.

Using the lock box method of releasing and re-securing the key, I quietly unlocked and entered their silent abode. I have never been in here before, but according to the little info I have from the office, the task list to be completed over the next six hours is as follows:

I am to wake them, assist them both with A.M. care, prepare breakfast, tidy from A.M. Care while they eat together in the sunny little breakfast room I am now standing in, make sure Madi has the paper to read to Don, assist with meds (which I have to locate and prep), do laundry, assist them in their morning to make them comfortable where ever they would like to spend their time together, provide some entertainment and conversation with that, prepare and assist with their lunch, clean up kitchen again, assist with meds again, assist them back to bed for afternoon nap, complete laundry, clean, double check Don's insulin needles to ensure they are ready for Madi to administer (under supervision now that her marbles are rolling around a little looser these days) wake them from nap and prep tea for around three... Now Breathe.

You think that was a run-on sentence? Try doing it on your feet and insert 'toileting Don with peri-care' as needed with other things such as finding lost articles like glasses, hankies, and the odd spouse here and there in the mix. Yes, they lost each other on and off when ever out of each other's sight. It's a lot for sure, but no way I would go back to my old desk job, even if they tried to entice me with double my salary. Primarily because of what comes next.

Upon that first day I entered their home and made my way to the back of the little one and a half story wartime style home, I knock on the slightly open bedroom door and find them curled up head to head and knee to knee in the bedroom they've shared for the last fifty some odd years they've lived in this house. I knew I was in love the second Madeline fluttered her sleepy eyes, and instinctively caressed Dons cheek tenderly with her tiny frail hand exposing a worn set of wedding rings, now too big for her thin little fingers.

"Would you give us another half hour luv?" then closing her eyes she snuggled in under Don's chin, both drifting back off and smiling away peacefully.

She didn't know me from anyone. Never met me before in her life and here she accepts me, trusting a stranger into the most intimate part of her life. And the tender love the two show here, melt me in to a big puddle of love I say!